Just finished his book 'Hard Road to Glory'. As anyone read it? I was amazed at how successful he was and how he was simply never wrote off as just a journeyman after 12 defeats. We write fighters off these days for having an handful of defeats (Groves for example) yet Nelson lost 4 of his first 8 fights...there was obviously reasons for that (fighting huge heavyweights). Anyway, fully recommend this book. Now starting on Roberto Duran's book.
Your only as good as your last performance to much is made on losses They can be a great learning curb if you knuckle down and try not to brush over it and make excuses for them just accept learn and move on
Totally agree mate. He had 12 defeats on his record by the time he was 30, was totally wrote off and nobody would touch him, then won 20 of his last 21 and drawn 1.
Some of his pre-fight predictions may be ridiculous (e.g. Ward stopping Kovalev)... but you can't knock the fact that this guy seriously put in the graft as a pro.
Thing is with boxing there are two opponents so there had to be plenty of defeats. You can't fight just journey man. Defeats are part of the game but when some go on too long it they should be stopped for their own health. . But you hear people saying if so and so loses this he should retire. Rubbish. There would be no one left if that were the case Groves has this every fight. When he's a fresh talented fighter in the Peak of his career with no real miles on the clock.
One of my all time favourite sports books this, read it in one go on a flight. Adam Smiths book is also a good one
What I see a lot of in these books and stuff is that a loss for the fighter is the best thing to ever happen to them. They say it just takes the pressure off because your not no more over protective of the '0' and you stop padding yourself up. Come to think of it, and this might sound crazy, but I think a few fighters of today could do with a loss (not directly) so they can understand whats really important for themselves as a boxer, and establish a different kind of motivation. I think a lot of people on here could name a list of boxers that a loss did them the world of good and went on to be successful in their own right.
Groves started this shyte calling for another mans retirement he as to live it down I'm afraid he should of kept shtum head down and rebuild he did not he blamed this and moaned that hampering himself more denial is a son of a bitach
One that springs to mind in recent times is degale he was a c*nt before the groves fight Also crolla was getting beat at domestic level a few years ago
I agree. A lot of the talk with Groves and Murray in the summer was that the loser may as well retire, yet why?? It would have just meant having a 4 instead of a 3 next to their loss record. It's ridiculous. As already stated, you learn so much from a bad night. Too many fighters beating up on puddings and avoiding any risk to their loss record. It's terrible for boxing.
Pretty impressive to debut as a 19 year old kid and be in the game almost 20 years, finishing with 14 world title wins. Although he never tried to unify the cruiser belts like Haye or step up to hw.
Read the book and it was a very decent read. Shows how a career can be turned around with belief,0-3 to World Champion,great achievement.
